Jacobs' thinking and writing went way beyond urban development issues into areas that engaged scientists, world economists, ecologists and others. Especially in this era of globalization and the outsourcing abroad of so many American enterprises, Jacobs' ideas about how to develop local economies are increasingly gaining new attention.
She also extolled the virtue of vibrant, dense neighborhoods and abhorred the trend in recent years to suburbanize urban communities instead of building back the density – not the overcrowding – that once made them thrive. Today, the most favored neighborhoods, in fact the ones with the highest real estate values, are the ones that best reflect her teaching. They are the traditional neighborhoods where new has been woven in without overwhelming the old, and where over-scaled new construction or suburbanization has not erased authentic local urban character. They exhibit her celebration of the idea that regeneration happens best when local people shape change.
SoHo, of course, is the star: first, because there Jacobs led the successful fight against Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway that would have wiped out SoHo (and Little Italy and Chinatown with it) before it could "happen"; and second, because SoHo changed the way the country viewed cities, celebrating the values of urban living, the values embodied in Jacobs’ teaching. Every city of any size today, with a remnant left of an industrial neighborhood, aspires to have a SoHo to aid in the regeneration of the whole city, as SoHo did for New York.
All American cities struggle today to recover from the misconceived urban renewal policies of the post-war era. They would do well to understand more clearly five Jacobs principles that go a long way to help that process: density, diversity, streets, transit and public process.
Density never causes deterioration; overcrowding does. Density makes diversity possible.
Diversity means more than a mix of residential, commercial and retail. Rereading "The Economy of Cities" is a must to understand the full breadth of what she meant.
Streets must connect to existing grid – not wind and curve like a suburban subdivision.
Mass transit needs expansion; accommodation of the car must be diminished.
Most of all, Jacobs advocated a genuine public process that encouraged citizens to help shape their community, not just testify about it.
As the final words say in her touchstone volume, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" – “Lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration.”
Author Roberta Brandes Gratz is the founder of The Center for the Living City at Purchase College, established in collaboration with urbanist Jane Jacobs, to build on her work. She contributed a piece to the book accompanying the MAS show, and will participate in the panel discussion "Can One Woman [Still] Make A Difference?" on Oct. 31.
